More Leaks, Microphones Are Up

When I spoke with Brenda yesterday evening I told her that the leak that I had repaired on the Zodiac was bigger and higher up out of the water - on top of the pontoon, actually - than the one I recall finding months ago.  Brenda described her recollection (port pontoon aft, just above the water line) and then I remembered too.  This morning I found it almost immediately with the help of a running hose.  I checked the entire bottom of the Zodiac with the running hose and found nothing else, but as I was orientating it to allow the sun to reach the area of the leak I heard a faint telltale sssss sound.  There was a pinprick of a hole on the starboard side that was so small that it did not show bubbles when I played the hose on it.  I began to think that I had a systemic problem due to the age of the Zodiac.  It is about 6 years old but has spent the overwhelming amount of its life in its bag protected from chafe and UV rays.

I was telling Bob about these leaks this morning and when he mentioned barnacles I realized the probable cause of the leaks.  There is a blog entry from a few months back where I describe (including photographs) the scraping off of many tiny barnacles off the bottom of the Zodiac.  They had developed during the many weeks in which I left the Zodiac in the water while Pachuca was riding on anchor.  This is a mistake that I will not make again. 

In the photograph you can easily see one of the leaks circled in red on the right side.  You should be able to make out the other leak in the blue part of the left side.  Early this morning I applied the patches and will pressure test them tomorrow.  Which reminds me to add that the patch that I applied yesterday pressure tested OK this morning.

Then I mounted the radio microphones onto the new panel.  That panel looks amazingly good given that it was cut from a piece of locally-purchased exterior grade ply that I happened to have on the boat.  As I clipped on the white VHF microphone I noticed that it was labelled "submersible". To the right you can see the aperture for the HF transceiver (Micom IC-M700PRO) badly in need of trimming.

I plan a trip to the Walmart-Home Depot area today with insect spray as my top priority.  Last night I saw on the galley counter what an appearance close enough to a tiny cockroach to spook me. I want to nip possibility this in the bud, so I will move out my kitchen equipment and vulnerable food stores then fumigate the boat.